A DIRTY JOB

So how's about you take some dicta— Oh, hell. Why bother with puns? How's about I bang your brains out?

Herb Roberts, aka Robert Carney, takes a stab at the always fertile office sleaze genre with 1963’s Love-Hungry Women, for which you see the cover above. It isn’t so much the women who are love hungry here. It’s more a story of rabid male ambition. The protagonist Steve is a small-time hustler getting his last shot at a good job at Garland Real Estate. He’s vowed to play it straight, but wouldn’t you just know it—the boss’s wife takes a shine to him and isn’t about to take no for an answer. She says she can help him get to the top, and pretty soon he’s not only in deep with her, but with other women around the office. With so many plates in the air it isn’t a question of whether he’ll drop them but when. The book purports to be an inside look at the business world à la Mad Men, but it’s really just lightweight titillation with no aspects worth serious consideration. We love this cover though. It fits right into the office nookie collection we put together several years ago. Too bad the art is uncredited.

Beacon Signal, Herb Roberts, Robert Carney, cover art, literature

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

March 15

1937—H.P. Lovecraft Dies

American sci-fi/horror author Howard Phillips Lovecraft dies of intestinal cancer in Providence, Rhode Island at age 46. Lovecraft died nearly destitute, but would become the most influential horror writer ever. His imaginary universe of malign gods and degenerate cults was influenced by his explicitly racist views, but his detailed and procedural style of writing, which usually pitted men of science or academia against indescribable monsters, remains as effective today as it was eighty years ago.

March 15

2011—Illustrator Michel Gourdon Dies

French pulp artist Michel Gourdon, who was the less famous brother of Alain Gourdon, aka Aslan, dies in Coudray, France aged eighty-five. He is known mainly for the covers he painted for the imprint Flueve Noir, but produced nearly 3,500 covers during his career.

March 14

1964—Ruby Found Guilty of Murder

In the U.S. a Dallas jury finds nightclub owner and organized crime fringe-dweller Jack Ruby guilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby had shot Oswald with a handgun at Dallas Police Headquarters in full view of multiple witnesses and photographers. Allegations that he committed the crime to prevent Oswald from exposing a conspiracy in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy have never been proven.

March 13

1925—Scopes Monkey Trial Ends

In Tennessee, the case of Scopes vs. the State of Tennessee, involving the prosecution of a school teacher for instructing his students in evolution, ends with a conviction of the teacher and establishment of a new law definitively prohibiting the teaching of evolution. The opposing lawyers in the case, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, both earn lasting fame for their participation in what was a contentious and sensational trial.

March 12

1933—Roosevelt Addresses Nation

Franklin D. Roosevelt uses the medium of radio to address the people of the United States for the first time as President, in a tradition that would become known as his “fireside chats”. These chats were enormously successful from a participation standpoint, with multi-millions tuning in to listen. In total Roosevelt would make thirty broadcasts over the course of eleven years.